Bottle Kilns

Hi,
I am still in limbo waiting for our house move. It has been almost 3 months now but still no confirmed moving date. There are only 4 people in the chain and we are moving to an empty house so how hard can it be?

Anyway, while sorting out the stuff I am taking with me I came to the conclusion that I needed a decent box to keep my blocks of polymer clay in. If you've ever wondered what a block of polymer clay looks like here is a photo.

These are sculpey polymer clays which come in a wide range of colours. Each block weighs 2oz and is an inch thick, two inches wide and 2.5 inches long. To keep them neat I decided on a flat box and I thought about making one, but then I remembered that I had just the thing. Many years ago when I was match angler, I kept my pole winders in a flat plywood box, so I dug it out and found it suited the blocks of clay perfectly.

Now seeing as I am kicking my heels waiting for moving day, which seems to be moving at a sloth's pace, I thought I'd brighten the lid up with a bit of pyrography. Those who have read my last post will already be aware of the design, but here it is again for anybody who missed it.

I live in Staffordshire so it seemed fitting to have have an image from the potteries on the top of my clay box. I also thought that it would be a change to do some hard landscaping because most of my pyrography work to date has been of flowers and items inspired by nature. This would be something completely different and a bit of a challenge. So, here is the finished article, I hope you like it.

I am very pleased with the way it turned out and I may do something similar in the future. Doing the brick work was slightly tedious, but at the same time it was therapeutic even though it did give my carpal tunnel some gyp.

I'm not sure about what I will be doing next because with half my world packed away I feel like I've been dispossessed. Ah well, I guess it will all sort itself out soon enough.